Maine Needs a New Bloodmobile and We Want to Help!

As our 10th anniversary celebration continues, all of us at Backyard Farms have been feeling the urge to give back to our community in a meaningful way. Over the winter, one of our employees experienced a fire in her home. Fortunately, no one was injured. And thanks to the American Red Cross of Maine, the difficult situation was a lot easier to deal with.

As we contemplated potential service projects, we quickly realized that a blood drive would be the perfect local activity that could help hundreds of people throughout our home state. We've set an aggressive 50 unit goal and are looking forward to reaching it on Saturday, May 20 at Somerset Abby in downtown Madison. (Call 1-800 RED CROSS to reserve a time at our blood drive or to find one in your community!)

During our conversations with the Red Cross of Maine's awesome staff, we learned some amazing facts. Did you know the Red Cross of Maine collects over 68,000 units of blood every year? For the past 13 years, 6,000 of those units have been collected in the Red Cross of Maine's bloodmobile, the only vehicle of its kind in the entire state.

Most bloodmobiles have a 10-year life expectancy so Maine's bloodmobile has certainly earned its retirement. And at Backyard Farms, we're inspired to help The Red Cross of Maine purchase a state-of-the-art bloodmobile along with five years of fuel and scheduled maintenance.

To do this, the Red Cross of Maine needs $500,000. Let's help them get across the finish line together and bring a brand new bloodmobile to Maine that can serve blood donors from Kittery to Fort Kent!

We encourage you to support this important project whether you live in Maine, vacation in Maine or just want to make sure that Maine's hospitals have the blood they need to help their patients heal. A bloodmobile makes it so much easier for busy people to donate, especially in small towns that don't have regular blood drives or Red Cross offices. To ensure every dollar you donate goes towards the bloodmobile, please write "BLOODMOBILE" in the memo of your check and mail it to:

The Red Cross of Maine estimates that the blood collected by this new bloodmobile will help save over 171,000 lives over the next ten years. And since we believe in leading by example at Backyard Farms, we're sending a check for $500.

After all, the Red Cross of Maine provides 90% of the blood to the 37 hospitals throughout the state. The lives we save could be our customers, our friends, our family, or even our own. Thanks for reading and helping!